i would like to say that i felt that vida lounge was a great place to dance , socializzze, enjoy and listen to great music.....

when i had arrived to vida, it was after the lessons. i was greated at the door with a smile from the guy running the place and from other TDS students that i had recognized.
had no problem getting in and doing the coat check.

the first visual i had of the upper room when i came through the door was the room full of dancers dancing away, and of the lighting that had drawn me into the room further.

as soon as i had settled in for the night....( greeting friends, saying hello to fellow students and having a drink ) i had this urgency to move, to shake it , to dance till my shirt fell off......

i had danced a few songs up stairs and then i wanted to see what it was like downstairs. this is when i really started to move. i was feeling the vibe of this place. i didnt want to stop. everyone that i talked to or danced with was having a great time and was feeling the energy that i had going.

at this time, i will comment on the floor.....yes, it was not the ideal floor. and , yes, it was slippery a bit.........

but.....

suck it up kids !

i was dancing with a few girls downstairs and they had slipped a few times while dancing salsa and during some bachata sets. you have to understand, that if you have a proper grip(hold) with yr partner then these slips are very minor and you keep dancing.
we smiled and we joked about it and we kept going.

after this all happened, i had moved my salsa fanny up the stairs and continued the night near the DJ, who i thought was doing a great job with the music.
his music was good and his mixing was not that bad at all. my only complaint about the music is that during the bachata sets, the mixing of the beats between songs was a little off. easily corrected, no problem.......

time was flying, a few hours had passed by and my shirt was soaked.......my apoligeezzz for this but it was not my fault. i blame all the beautiful people i was dancing with.....

or..... maybe it was the heat ?

guys, you are dancing. you are dancing in a room full of people dancing, and to top it all off..... you are dancing in a room full of people dancing SALSA !!!! is this not one of the most energizzed styles out there? please correct me if i am wrong but if i am not sweating then i am not giving back to myself what i have come to learn and love about this style of dance.
you have to tell yrself that if your going to dance then it is ok for you to sweat and it is ok for yr partner to do the same or someone you are going to ask to dance.

the fans that were there at vida were not that bad, maybe a few more to correct some of the concerns.

at the end of the night, there was a group of us still dancing and just having fun. everyone else had gone home. the place was closing up. we had decided to grab some food up the street and we had discussed some of the issues that have been brought forward.

all in all......i believe this place was a good choice for an outing with the students and that Sharon had done a fabulous job.

Please, a message to all of you who will read this and would like to pass on this message to other students..........the outings that Sharon puts on is for the sake of the students. an ideal location with perfect flooring, lighting, music,the number of people attending ect....may exist at specific locations but these places do not cater to the situation at hand........enjoy yrselves everytime you go out and put up with some of the issues that arise.

I understand Mark C. with what you are saying - like I said earlier, we made the most of it and had some fun, and Sharon does a great job - we don't ever complain about the fantastic efforts and dedication on her part there...

But we all have our opinions about our favorite places to dance, our favorite atmosphere, our favorite shoes to wear, our favorite songs, our favorite shines, our favorite turn patterns, etc....I think you get my point that I don't mean harm or to offend in my "two-cents" with regards to venue-experience. Personally, I just wanted to share my first impression of the venue and speak frankly and honestly (because we were asked to share our thoughts.) That's the whole point of feedback, right?

But to sum it up, for these outings, as long as there are good friends, good tunes - we can have a party anywhere!

And hey, since so many of you had such a great experience and feel so strongly about Vida Lounge, maybe I'll try the venue another try!

Location: Decent, parking available at street, etc. not that far away for me via 401. 4/5

Venue: 2 floors, good for variety and having space to dance. They had a problem with the sound downstairs after a point, meaning you had to migrate upstairs. No biggie except if you wanted to dance downstairs... 3.5/5

Floor condition: Floor was slippery AND sticky at the same time (in the downstairs at least). Otherwise, no worse than Plaza. I don't like this type of floor myself (concrete), really bad for suede bottoms (which I didn't use here). 2/5

Music: I kind of liked the fact there was more salsa. However, the other types of music went too long, the DJ coulda mixed it up better. Of the songs he did play, I found them all nice to dance to. 3.5/5

Lesson: Since I came in with 10mins left , I can only comment on what I learned during that time, and I thought the new moves were quite leadable and interesting. 5/5

Total: 18/25 a solid B

Thanks go to Sharon and all those that make these events happen (I don't know who y'all are, so going with a generic thanks!). Based on the constraints, there really doesn't seem to be that many places that are accomodating... If only Acrobat had a downstairs or El Rancho was available on Fri/Sat..._________________Some dance to remember....
Some dance to forget...

I liked Plaza a little better because of the location and that we were all in one dance floor. I thought the music in Vida was better than Plaza. All in all, the place was ok. The DJ was really nice during the lesson, and did play bachata and merengue when we asked him in the end.

It kind of sucks that Acrobat will be closed for a while. We should have one more event at Vida before the year ends.